GStwin.com GS500 Message Forum

Mobil has like 6.99 a quart "4 cycle motorcycle 10W40"....

Since I'm recovering from goats syndrome I bought regular pennzoil 10w40 because I'll be changing it every 100 miles for about 300 miles...


What oil is best?

walmart accel 10W40... old car oil, SF rated... $.74 a qt... no problems... lots of good additives... looks grey right out the bottle ... yum.
Cool.
Srinath.

Oh no now you done it.

Castrol GTX 10-40.

i just put in Castrol Super RX truck oil .. it seems to work even better than Castrol GTX. This one is 15-40.. works awesome. very smooth shifting after like 10 miles of breaking it in. I loved the shifting today on the canyons.

Delo 15W-40 or Rotella T 15W-40, stuffs great. It has lots of addidtives, and the phosphrous something something in it to prevent galling if metal to metal contact occurs.

Never tried regular car/truck oil, I've always used Yamalube 20W40 in my GS and it shifts pretty darn good.  My cousin had a '99 YZ400 dirtbike that he thrashed the crap out of, overrevving constantly, missing shifts cuz he's a clubfoot, running low on oil, over filling, forgetting to change the oil every 5 hrs or so, but he always ran Yamalube 20W40 in it, always had a good filter in it, and after 70 hrs of hauling his 240 lb ass around the MX tracks of Minnesota, his valves looked brand friggin new.  Like, BRAND new!!!

Just thought I'd let y'all know my experience.

Rotella T - $6.50/gallon.  :)

Quote from: seshadri_srinathwalmart accel 10W40... old car oil, SF rated... $.74 a qt... no problems... lots of good additives... looks grey right out the bottle ... yum.
Cool.
Srinath.

Ahh, and how often do you change it?  I'm kind of curious since everyone always says that oil from the supermarket or any other place that sells cheaper than cheap oil will destroy the engine.

Are you running high rpm's also for a lot of the time?

btw, 74ct's is incredible  :o  That's even cheaper than dieselfuel is here  :P

Semi-synthethic oil from the gas-station is about $ 12 here. cheapest mineral from Castrol is $ 8.  Synthetic oil is for people having too much money. The price is so high that I won't put it up here, it would scare people.

You dont want regular car oil.
The moly additives will do bad things to your wet clutch.

You either need a motorcycle specific oil (Honda, Suzi, etc), or a diesel specific oil (Rotella T, Delo 400? are good choices).   Your motorcycle oil isnt actually any better than the diesel oils though.  There are some published tests proving it, but I dont know where off the top of my head.

Quote from: BigRedMonkeyButtYou dont want regular car oil.
The moly additives will do bad things to your wet clutch.

:lol:

I've run Valvoline 10-30 or 10-40(car oil) in every 2 stroke(transmission) and 4 stroke bike and quad I've ever owned(more than a dozen), and only had to replace cluchplates on one, my Husqvarna 390 race bike. Only one engine failure on a Kawasaki KDX175 with an oval bore(from the factory).

Ok, so you're gonna make me have to do research now.

My personal opinion is to avoid regular "car" oil, as there are different chemicals used in car oil (such as Moly's for example) called friction modifiers.
When you have a lot of friction modifiers in your oil, they can cause clutch slippage.
Specifically that would be the oils labeled as "energy conserving".

Im going to go do research and get proof of that now.

Quote from: BigRedMonkeyButtIm going to go do research[...]

As part of your research, find out for sure whether the older SF spec says anything about friction modifiers.

Then check your GS500 owner's manual and see which spec they recommend.  I believe SF is listed.

Then reexamine Srinath's recommendation earlier in the thread:

Quote from: seshadri_srinathwalmart accel 10W40... old car oil, SF rated... $.74 a qt... no problems... lots of good additives... looks grey right out the bottle ... yum.

Then check out this photo as evidence that he's not remembering something wrong.


Then tell us to shell out for motorcycle-specific oil.  :roll:

Ok, so Im Kerry'ing it now . . . kindof.

No energy-conserving oils.  How's that?
I use Good 'ol Rotella T, and Im thinking of going to the Synthetic Rotella.

SF seems kindof low spec-wise isnt it?
Arent they up ot SL now?


A few links:
http://www.yft.org/tex_vfr/tech/oil.htm - That one's a good read.
http://www.vtr.org/maintain/oil-overview.html
http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.htm

Quote from: BigRedMonkeyButtSF seems kindof low spec-wise isnt it?
Arent they up ot SL now?

Yeah, that sounds about right.  And for today's cars (and bikes?) with tighter tolerances, etc. using an updated oil blend could make good sense.  But the GS still sports a late-80's engine.  That's why the fact that you can even FIND the Accel oil seems almost miraculous.

For the record, I haven't used the Accel stuff yet.  After putting on ~17,000 miles with Mobil1 15W50 full-synth (which probably has plenty of friction modifiers, BTW) I got myself to move "down" to Castrol Syntec 10W40 for my last oil change.  But I think I'll try the Accel on my next one, just for kicks....

EDIT: Corrected mileage figure

Quote from: Lars

Quote from: seshadri_srinathwalmart accel 10W40... old car oil, SF rated... $.74 a qt... no problems... lots of good additives... looks grey right out the bottle ... yum.
Cool.
Srinath.

Ahh, and how often do you change it?  I'm kind of curious since everyone always says that oil from the supermarket or any other place that sells cheaper than cheap oil will destroy the engine.

Are you running high rpm's also for a lot of the time?

btw, 74ct's is incredible  :o  That's even cheaper than dieselfuel is here  :P

Semi-synthethic oil from the gas-station is about $ 12 here. cheapest mineral from Castrol is $ 8.  Synthetic oil is for people having too much money. The price is so high that I won't put it up here, it would scare people.

Well I change it often, never more than 2500 and usually 1000 -1500 ... and I do a lot of high rpms ... but of late I have more short (12 -14 mile 1 way) trips than the 50 mile 1 ways I was doing....
Cool.
Srinath.

i asked some people about using car oil for the bike... he said car oil's not design to work with the transmission and clutch and everything... so in a while... it will turn into water...

Quote from: jkstyle834i asked some people about using car oil for the bike... he said car oil's not design to work with the transmission and clutch and everything... so in a while... it will turn into water...

"some people"?  "he"?

I don't know their qualifications, but are these folks riders?  Or do they work on bikes for a living and SEE this kind of thing happen over and over?

All I know is what I've experienced on my GS.  I have always changed the oil myself ... 8 or 9 times now ... and I've never seen any "water".  :dunno:

i dont think he meant literally water... well... he works at the local used motorcycle shop... he said if you change your oil like every 1000 miles or something... it should be aite... but like every 3000... i guess it's bad... i think he meant the oil get's too thin??

gonna try Castrol GTX next time...cuz they give you a FREE fram filter!!

How 'bout Mobil1 10w-30?  I use it in my car and it's relatively cheap(for a synth) at Costco.  It's what I have laying around.  Also, how many quarts does the gs take?

Quote from: jkstyle384dont think he meant literally water [...] i think he meant the oil get's too thin??

OK, gotcha.  I took it too literally.

I don't get the impression that this person is "selling" anything, so I'm sure he's being honest about his perceptions.  But there's something missing.

* Does he work on used bikes that have been sitting in the garage for several seasons?  (They may indeed have water condensed into the crankcase.)

* Does he work on bikes that need an oil change every 2 or 3 months because the owner puts on a lot of miles?

* Does he have any way of knowing which bikes coming from which situations?

* Does he know what kind of oil is in the crankcase when the bike comes in?  (Car vs Bike, 5W30 vs 15W50, etc.)[/list:u]Most mechanics never get the chance to even

ask such questions - they're just handed a bike and told to fix it.

I guess I'm just uncomfortable with such a vague, blanket statement.  I prefer observable facts, gathered specifically from a GS500.  :)

Quote from: DomHow 'bout Mobil1 10w-30?  I use it in my car and it's relatively cheap(for a synth) at Costco.  It's what I have laying around.

I don't see why not.  I believe the owner's manual lists 10W30 as well as 10W40.  They recommend one over the other at ceretain temperature ranges, but those ranges significantly overlap.

Quote from: DomAlso, how many quarts does the gs take?

A little under 3 quarts:

Thanks Kerry  :thumb:

this weekends riding with Castrol Super RX diesel oil or whatever its called.. I got excellent results.. i suggest that over Castrol GTX. I found the shifting more precise.

Quote from: jkstyle834i asked some people about using car oil for the bike... he said car oil's not design to work with the transmission and clutch and everything... so in a while... it will turn into water...

That is extra funny ... cos oil gets thicker and thicker ... oh yea with the thing getting hot it behaves less and less viscous with age... whihc makes it get hotter ... making for a vicious cycle or is that viscous cycle ...  but when cold its more and more viscous due to impurity and the lighter additives burning off ... so with 3K when cold you have oil that dont want to flow and at temp it doesn't lubricate as well... double whammy...
Cool.
Srinath.